Oak Park landmark clock once again alive and ticking

Old Field's timepiece back in ticktock shape

December 05, 2013|By Karen Schwartz, Special to the Tribune

The clock at the former Marshall Field's (and Borders) store at Lake Street and Harlem Avenue in Oak Park is ticking again after many years in disrepair, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2013. (Chuck Berman, Chicago Tribune)

An iconic clock in Oak Park is telling the correct time again, several years after it stopped running.

The four-sided clock on the northeast corner of Lake Street and Harlem Avenue is attached to a building on the National Register of Historic Places that until two years ago housed a Borders bookstore, and many years before that was the site of a Marshall Field's store.

Indeed, the clock has some similarities to the two clocks that grace the outside of Field's former flagship store on State Street in Chicago's Loop, which now is home to Macy's. The Oak Park clock is smaller and less intricate but a familiar site nonetheless at the busy intersection.

"This is a landmark building in Oak Park, and ... we're pleased that efforts have been made to preserve its character and integrity," said Max Austin-Williams, executive director of Downtown Oak Park.

The clock, which has a frame and outer surface made of bronze, is about 20 feet above ground level. It hadn't worked for about four or five years, said Holly Karris, general counsel and commercial property manager of Water Tower Realty Management Co., which owns and manages the building and still has tenants in its upper floors.

The quest to fix the clock took years, Karris said.

"I talked to a lot of different companies, I went to antique stores, I looked everywhere, but it's a very specific skill set to fix the clock," she said.

The job eventually went to Oak Park-based J&M Triangle Sign and Awning Co., which began repair work Oct. 10 and finished Nov. 22.

"We first removed the clock mechanism from the clock — it had bird droppings, and bird and spider nests in it," said Larry Olive, owner of J&M Triangle.

Because the mechanism was so old and repair parts weren't readily available, "we decided to get a totally new clock system, retaining the clock faces, hour and minute hands," Olive said.

The faces — 26 inches in diameter — were cleaned and repainted so they appear as they did in 1929 when the Field's store opened. The frame, which was painted greenish-bronze 15 or 20 years ago, was polished and touched up, Olive said. And workers installed a new electrical and lighting system and then reset the time.

Karris would not disclose the repair price.

Olive said work he has done over the years with the Chicago Clock Co. helped him with the Oak Park job.

"Fixing the clock in my own community has given me a real sense of satisfaction," Olive said.